Just a quick question here. Supposing one were to make an indirect thermal siphon water heating set up but for the sake of simplicity and cheapness feed the supply from the header tank to the flow side rather than the return.
Normally the supply goes to the return side and an expansion/overflow pipe goes to the header tank. So if you were to do it the way I suggest how much heat would be lost to the header tank?
Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
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Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
Malc
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Re: Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
You mean like this?
Quite a lot, I'd think. I can't see why the hot water would continue past the junction to your cylinder much at all - the header tank would (should) be higher, and therefore a more attractive route.
I'm a bit puzzled by your use of the word "supply". In an indirect system presumably you're not actually supplying fresh water all the time, but circulating the same body of water round and round, with a header tank to allow for expansion. This probably means I've misunderstood you.
Quite a lot, I'd think. I can't see why the hot water would continue past the junction to your cylinder much at all - the header tank would (should) be higher, and therefore a more attractive route.
I'm a bit puzzled by your use of the word "supply". In an indirect system presumably you're not actually supplying fresh water all the time, but circulating the same body of water round and round, with a header tank to allow for expansion. This probably means I've misunderstood you.
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Rachel
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Rachel
Take nobody's word for it, especially not mine! If I offer you an ID of something based on a photo, please treat it as a guess, and a starting point for further investigations.
My blog: http://growingthingsandmakingthings.blogspot.com/
Re: Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
I'm not so sure Rachel, although I can't quite make up my mind.
If as you say the header tank would be a more attractive route, it still has to get a return supply from somewhere. The only "somewhere" available is through the cylinder coil which would mean a thermo siphon flow which would in turn give up heat to the cylinder.
Either it would work (but not as efficiently as it could) or it won't work at all and there would be no flow, the header tank would get hot due to conduction and the cylinder would stay relatively cold.
But I can't make up my mind which ... sorry Malc.
If as you say the header tank would be a more attractive route, it still has to get a return supply from somewhere. The only "somewhere" available is through the cylinder coil which would mean a thermo siphon flow which would in turn give up heat to the cylinder.
Either it would work (but not as efficiently as it could) or it won't work at all and there would be no flow, the header tank would get hot due to conduction and the cylinder would stay relatively cold.
But I can't make up my mind which ... sorry Malc.
Tony
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Disclaimer: I almost certainly haven't a clue what I'm talking about.
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Re: Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
I see what you mean - it might still draw the water round the system and so work. Even so, unless the header tank was much better insulated than they usually are (which is, of course, an option) a lot of heat would be lost that way.
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Rachel
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Rachel
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Re: Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
That image doesn't show up either in IE or Firefox here at work. and if I type in the address mandraulically it shows a blank page. Probably settings on our network.Zech wrote:You mean like this?
You have to supply the indirect coil with water from somewhere otherwise it would be empty and wouldn't work. Basically yes the header tank for expansion is the supply to the indirect coil.I'm a bit puzzled by your use of the word "supply". In an indirect system presumably you're not actually supplying fresh water all the time, but circulating the same body of water round and round, with a header tank to allow for expansion. This probably means I've misunderstood you.
Malc
High in the sky, what do you see ?
Come down to Earth, a cup of tea
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High in the sky, what do you see ?
Come down to Earth, a cup of tea
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From outer space, Flying Teapot
- Zech
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Re: Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
Oh, sorry about that. Probably my fault for trying to use facebook to host the image. It wasn't a very good drawing anyway - one pipe running uphill from solar panel to coil in cylinder, with a junction on that pipe and a vertical pipe leading up to the expansion tank, then another pipe running back downhill from coil to panel. The key point is that the pipe to the header tank comes off between the panel and the coil.Crickleymal wrote:That image doesn't show up either in IE or Firefox here at work. and if I type in the address mandraulically it shows a blank page. Probably settings on our network.Zech wrote:You mean like this?
Yes, I did misunderstand - I took 'supply' to mean continuously supplying more fresh water (as in replacing water that comes out of the taps), which wasn't what you meant.Crickleymal wrote:You have to supply the indirect coil with water from somewhere otherwise it would be empty and wouldn't work. Basically yes the header tank for expansion is the supply to the indirect coil.I'm a bit puzzled by your use of the word "supply". In an indirect system presumably you're not actually supplying fresh water all the time, but circulating the same body of water round and round, with a header tank to allow for expansion. This probably means I've misunderstood you.
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Rachel
Take nobody's word for it, especially not mine! If I offer you an ID of something based on a photo, please treat it as a guess, and a starting point for further investigations.
My blog: http://growingthingsandmakingthings.blogspot.com/
Rachel
Take nobody's word for it, especially not mine! If I offer you an ID of something based on a photo, please treat it as a guess, and a starting point for further investigations.
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Re: Thermal Siphon Solar heating.
Thanks. I thought it would be less efficient but I was trying to save a bit of copper
Malc
High in the sky, what do you see ?
Come down to Earth, a cup of tea
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Come down to Earth, a cup of tea
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